As I said all week… this is a barn that came to play.

I took a few of my new friends ~ some of which were borrowed ~ on the press box balcony between races and had a little photoshoot fun.

Go behind the scenes with the Grade1Racing clocking crew at Churchill Downs as we scope out the main Derby contenders in their final week of preps.    

FocusedFilly.com is back with brand new content for the 2012 Triple Crown season! We’re starting Derby week off the right way: looking ahead to the future!

Mike Repole is truly a good guy and he’s great for this game on all levels. He’s just having a very public adjustment to the fame and the worst thing that can happen is for him to burn himself out by trying so hard to be the perfect owner. Like celebrity or Congress, there is no such thing. Unless they’re a Kardashian, celebrities have been working on their craft most of their lives and the sudden adulation can be difficult to adjust to.

We, as an industry, wanted the bigger, faster, better Thoroughbred. So man invented something that slows down the evolutionary process. In the wild, if an animal can’t keep up, it is left behind. Isn’t it up to us as owners and trainers to say, “this horse bleeds – he’s not meant to be a racehorse.” No, we shoot ‘em up and send ‘em out. So we let this happen and the solution we’re about to put into place is going to make it ten times worse.